Home Office

Crime Prevention

Lord Taylor of Warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by Resolve Taking back our communities - working together to make communities safe, published on 19 July; and what plansthey have to develop and deliver effective victimcentred strategies to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Lord Greenhalgh: The Government is committed to tackling and preventing anti-social behaviour. We know the serious impact that persistent anti-social behaviour can have on individuals and wider communities.That’s why we have provided police, local authorities and other local agencies with a range of flexible tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to ASB through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. It is for local areas decide how best to deploy these powers depending on the specific circumstances.Home Office statutory guidance, which was updated in January 2021, supports local agencies to work together to prevent and respond to anti-social behaviour, as well as ensuring a victim-centred approach to tackling ASB.The Beating Crime Plan published on 27 July laid out the Government’s commitment to working with local agencies and partners to drive down anti-social behaviour using the full range of powers and tools in the ‘2014 Act’The Home Office supported Resolve’s ASB Awareness Week, which took place the week commencing 19th July.ABS Statutory Guidance - Jan 2021  (pdf, 1316.0KB)

Department for Education

Remote Education

The Earl of Dundee: To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to support online learning initiatives at local and national level in the UK; and what plans they have to promote online learning at the Global Education Summit on 28–29 July.

Baroness Berridge: Technology in education has been essential for continuing to teach remotely during the COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent school and college closures. Technology also has the potential to support teacher workload reductions, flexible working, cost savings, effective teaching and improved pupil outcomes. We are building on the department’s significant investment in devices, platforms, training and digital services to develop a sustainable strategy for digital technology in education.The department launched the first phase of the EdTech Demonstrator programme in April 2020. The Demonstrators are a network of schools and colleges which were initially funded in the 2020/21 financial year to provide peer-to-peer support on making the best use of technology to support remote teaching during the COVID-19 outbreak.During phase one of the programme, the Demonstrator network provided bespoke support, meeting the individual training needs of over 4,000 schools and colleges, with over 11,000 more accessing live weekly webinars and tutorials.The programme will continue into the 2021/22 financial year and will include support to schools and colleges to develop a sustainable digital strategy that supports wider school and college improvement drives. Schools and colleges can request support from the demonstrators via the programme website: https://edtechdemo.ucst.uk/.From September 2021, we continue to expect schools to provide remote education for pupils whose attendance would be contrary to government guidance or legislation around COVID-19. Schools should, therefore, maintain their capabilities to deliver high quality remote education for next academic year.A comprehensive package of support continues to be available to schools and further education institutions to help them meet our expectations for remote education, accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-help-with-remote-education.To support the hard work of schools in delivering remote education, Oak National Academy was very quickly brought together by over 40 teachers, their schools and other education organisations. The department has made £4.84 million available for Oak National Academy both for the summer term of the academic year 2019/20, and then for the 2020/21 academic year, to provide video lessons in a broad range of subjects for Reception up to year 11. Specialist content for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities is also available. Since the start of the spring term 2021, over 98 million Oak National Academy lessons have been viewed.The department has now committed a further £2.1 million to Oak National Academy, enabling it to operate from the start of the next academic year through to Easter 2022.My right hon. Friend, the Minister of State for School Standards, has agreed to meet overseas education ministers attending the Global Education Partnership Summit to share policy experience and best practice in raising standards, and discuss approaches for education recovery. These meetings will provide an opportunity to highlight the department’s work such as Oak National Academy, and we expect overseas ministers, particularly from developing countries, to be interested in learning more about our approach.

Education: Standards

Lord Browne of Belmont: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of educational underachievement in Britain; and whether they feel a one-size-fits-all approach is the answer.

Baroness Berridge: Education is a devolved matter, and the response will outline the education reforms for England.The government remains committed to raising educational standards for all pupils, to ensure they have the knowledge, qualifications and skills they need to succeed in life. The proportion of schools now rated by Ofsted as Good or Outstanding has risen from 68% in 2010 to 86% in 2020. For all phases of education, there is funding in place that specifically targets disadvantaged children and young people, in order to tackle the attainment gap.For children in their early years, the department is investing £17 million to deliver the Nuffield Early Language Intervention, improving the language skills of reception age children who need it most during the COVID-19 outbreak. We have also announced £10 million for a pre-reception early language continued professional development programme, supporting early years staff to work with those disadvantaged children who are at risk of falling behind.Disadvantaged children at school continue to benefit from additional funding given to their schools through the pupil premium, worth over £2.5 billion in 2021/22.For 16 to 19-year-olds, the national funding formula includes extra funding for disadvantaged students. In 2020/21 the government allocated over £530 million to enable colleges, schools, and other providers to recruit and support disadvantaged 16 to 19-year-olds and to support students with special educational needs and disabilities.The Disadvantage Gap Index shows that, between 2011 and 2019, the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils narrowed by 13% at age 11 and 9% at age 16.

Schools: Finance

Lord Watson of Invergowrie: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the average real-terms change in per-pupil funding in (1) the most deprived 20 per cent of schools, and (2) the least deprived 20 per cent, over the past five years.

Baroness Berridge: In the current 2021/22 financial year, the National Funding Formula (NFF) allocates 17%, equivalent to £6.4 billion, of its funding through additional needs factors, which include deprivation. A further £2.5 billion of pupil premium funding, which has a specific focus on raising the attainment of deprived pupils, is provided on top of that. The department has recently published notional NFF allocations for the 2022/23 financial year. The funding allocated through additional needs factors in the NFF will increase to £6.7 billion.The following table shows average per pupil funding allocated through the NFF, for the most deprived 20% of schools, and the least deprived 20% of schools, in the financial years 2018/19 and 2022/23. NFF funding per pupil inc premises (adjusted for ACA[1]) - 2018-19NFF funding per pupil inc premises (adjusted for ACA) - 2022-23% increase in real termsMost deprived£4,917£5,6713.9%Least deprived£3,997£4,7556.4%  Pay and pensions grants have been removed from this analysis, to ensure comparability between the years. The most and least deprived schools have been identified by reference to the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals in 2022/23, and the groups of schools will not necessarily represent those who were most or least deprived in 2018/19.In addition to NFF allocations, schools also receive funding through the pupil premium, to help them improve the attainment of their disadvantaged pupils. In the 2021/22 financial year, each primary pupil who has been eligible for free school meals at a point over the past six years attracts £1,345 Pupil Premium funding, with each “Ever 6” free school meals secondary pupil attracting £955. The equivalent rates for 2018/19 were £1,320 for primary pupils, and £935 for secondary pupils. The department will confirm schools’ pupil premium allocations for 2022/23 in spring next year.In setting the NFF, the department has been careful to consider funding for deprivation, considering both the deprivation funding channelled through the NFF, and the funding provided through the pupil premium. It is right that schools with more pupils with additional needs, such as those indicated by measures of deprivation, low prior attainment, or English as an additional language, should receive extra funding to help ensure that schools are supported to meet the needs of all their pupils. For example, in 2021/22 a primary school pupil who is eligible for free school meals will attract a total of £2,380 for their school, through a combination of the free school meal and FSM6 factors in the NFF and the pupil premium, and a secondary pupil attracts £2,255. This is in addition to the basic per-pupil funding that all pupils attract through the NFF.The main reasons for the relative redistribution of funding between local authorities are the introduction of minimum per pupil funding levels in 2018/19 and the funding system reflecting changes in relative deprivation over time. Some areas that have been historically particularly deprived, such as inner London, have become less deprived relative to other areas.[1] The area cost adjustment is a multiplier that applies to both pupil-led and school-led factors and enables the core NFF funding amounts to take account of geographical variation in labour market costs.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Space Technology

Lord Bowness: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks byLord Frost on 4 March (HL Deb, col 504GC), when they expect to publish their report on the new national space strategy.

Lord Callanan: This Government is committed to making the UK a global science and technology superpower and a meaningful actor in space. This will be achieved through the UK’s first comprehensive national space strategy that unleashes growth and innovation in the UK space sector. The strategy is progressing and will be published in due course.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Carbon Capture and Storage: Planning Permission

Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb: To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer byLord Greenhalgh on 16 July (HL1706), whether theEnvironment Agency takes any legal account of CO2 emissions when issuingpermits; and whether any local authority has "supported the transition to a low carbon future" by requiring carbon capture technology as part of planning permission.

Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park: On the UK's exit from the European Union all relevant EU environmental legislation became part of UK law. This includes the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) which prescribes much of the permitting requirements the Environment Agency delivers through permits issued to installations in England, under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 (EPR).The UK no longer participates in the EU Greenhouse Gas Trading System (EU ETS) Directive and has established its own emissions trading scheme. The same framework applies, and the ETS explicitly and directly seeks to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The Environment Agency is the regulator in England for the ETS and for other climate change regulatory frameworks which may also apply to certain activities, whether they require permits or not. These include Climate Change Agreements and the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme.Where an installation's emissions of greenhouse gases are subject to the ETS (which, given the larger scale of IED activities, is likely), the IED prohibits the Environment Agency from setting emission limit values in the environmental permit under EPR. Instead, emissions of greenhouse gases are regulated via the ETS which requires operators to obtain separate ETS permits, to monitor and report all their greenhouse gas emissions and to surrender allowances for every tonne of carbon dioxide, or equivalent, emitted (one allowance is equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide).The Environment Agency seeks to limit direct and indirect emissions of carbon dioxide and many other greenhouse gases via its EPR permitting approaches for all relevant activities, whether subject to IED or not. Examples include requirements on energy efficiency and resource efficiency (including water, energy and waste) by requiring applicants of such activities to scale and assess the impact of their emissions on global warming (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/assess-the-impact-of-air-emissions-on-global-warming and attached to this answer), with the intent of reducing their emissions by selecting the best available techniques and processes to control their emissions.The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that the planning system should support the transition to a low carbon future, including by supporting renewable and low carbon energy and associated infrastructure. Local Planning Authorities should consider this when considering whether to grant planning permission. Where relevant, this can include considering the appropriateness of carbon capture technologies.Assess impact of air emissions on global warming (pdf, 223.4KB)